Shhhhhh! Romance Writer at work…

Posts Tagged ‘piercings’

I loved this novella and it reminded me of Laura Kaye’s Hearts in Darkness (which I also loved) in the intensity and depth of the story, with so much emotion packed into a short novella.

Elise has just been dumped – by text message – and goes to a bar to drown her sorrows. Somewhere she wouldn’t normally venture, where she can be alone. She’s on the verge of leaving when a stranger joins her at the bar, the kind of man she’d normally avoid. Tattooed. Hard looking. Gloriously hot and yummy.

He was way too tempting and her bruised ego was way too vulnerable.

Before she knows it, she tells him why she’s there.

Tattoo man leaned close, his breath whispered into her ear, fanned across her skin, and she fought not to shiver, fought not to lift her head and turn it just a fraction of an inch to her right. “Let me take care of you.”

She’s not the kind of girl to go off with a stranger. But she’s tempted.

When he put the glass back down, half the liquid was gone. “This isn’t one of those thinking moments. This is one of those go-for-it ‘doing’ moments. I want you to smile big and bright and I want to see tears in your eyes because you’ve some so much… because you’ve come so hard.”

She imagines they’ll go to a hotel, nice and anonymous, but he wants to take her back to his place instead. After a steamy clinch in the yard outside the bar, she throws caution to the wind.

“And then there’s you. I don’t know how to have sex with a man like you.”

“What does that mean? What is a ‘man like me’?”

“Dark. Dirty. Hard. Unconventional.”

Even his name is unconventional – Vintner. I swooned several times and squeeed plenty as he took her home and then did as he promised, he looked after her. She’s drunk too much, so he puts her to bed. To sleep. I was a goner at that point. Of course, when she wakes up, they finally get it on. Things are hotting up nicely when Vinter murmurs to her:

“Before we go further, you need to see something.”

Oh. Wow. He has piercings… < wink > And a bod to die for.

There was something incredibly mouth-watering about a man unbuttoning his jeans that a zipper just didn’t convey.

It’s a quick read. And hot. Did I mention how hot it is? But it’s not just sex with a stranger, they become more. They make that emotional connection that’s so satisfying to read.

He made her feel alive, womanly, sexual, desired whereas the Suits never did. Around them, she always felt she was auditioning for a part in their lives.

There’s a fantastic scene where her ex calls her up, right when they’re in the middle of some seriously steamy getting-to-know-each-other moves. He wants her back? She can’t have moved on already… can she? You’ll have to read it to find out 🙂